Jan Plesman

Jan Plesman (12 August 1945 – 26 December 2024) was a Dutch aircraft pilot.

Plesman was born in The Hague on 12 August 1945. His grandfather was aviation pioneer Albert Plesman who founded the KLM. The father of Jan Plesman was Hans Plesman, who was a pilot who was killed during the 1949 KLM Lockheed Constellation crash. The uncle of Jan Plesman, son of Albert Plesman, Jan Leendert Plesman was also a pilot.^[1]

Plesman became a KLM pilot. He started his career as a co-pilot in 1969 on a Fokker F27 Friendship. Later he became pilot at a Douglas DC-8 and from 1980 at a Boeing 747-200.^[2] In August 1983 it was announced that Plesman would become the first officer of the Douglas DC-2 Uiver.^[3] Plesman became known for the 'memorial flight' of this aircraft in 1984. The flight was a copy of the 1934 MacRobertson Air Race flight, the famous air race that the Uiver had won 50 years earlier. This 'memorial flight' from Amsterdam via Indonesia to Australia was not a race but a main event for promotion of the Netherlands.^[4] On this flight were next to Plesman, three other crew members, people of the NOS who made a television documentory and journalists of newspaper De Telegraaf.^[1] It was a flight with several risks but it was successful.^[5] Plesman and his crew were festively welcomed with a fighter jet escort. They were invited at palaces and received several banquets.^[2] In Australia the flight resulted in a trade mission for Dutch companies.^[1] Plesman wrote during this flight a diary that was published by NRC Handeslblad.^[6] Three and a half months after departure, Plesman and his crew arrived back at Schiphol.^[7]

Plesman died in Wassenaar on 26 December 2024, at the age of 79 years old.^[1][4]